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Mappo Thought in Kamakura Buddhism

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Mappo Thought in Kamakura Buddhism View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age MappO Thought in Kamakura Buddhism PART I Jackie Stone By the latter part of the Heian Period (794-1185), a majority of Japanese believed that the world had entered a dark era known as mappO the age of the Final Dharma. Buddhist tradition held that in this age, owing to human depravity, the teachings of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni would become obscured, and enlightenment all but impossible to attain. By the mid-eleventh century, natural disasters, social instability and widespread corruption among the Bud­ dhist clergy lent seeming credence to scriptural predictions about the evil age of mappO—predictions which in turn gave form to popular anx­ ieties, feeding the growing mood of terror, despair and anomie known as mappO consciousness. MappO thought was the heritage of the founders of the new Buddhist movements of the Kamakura period (1185-1333). Whether they chose individually to assign the mappO doctrine central or peripheral impor­ tance in their teachings or to reject it outright, all of them were com­ pelled to answer in some way the fears and aspirations that it represented. What did individual Buddhist leaders of the Kamakura period teach about the Final Dharma age? What did they perceive as the major doctrinal issues involved in mappO thought? Did some of their responses prove better suited to contemporary religious needs than others? Can we find any common elements in their response to mappO consciousness that would help us to characterize Kamakura Buddhism in general? What connection do we find between mappO 28 SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE LAST AGE thought and the quality of universality often pointed to as the outstand­ ing characteristic of Kamakura Buddhism? This paper will briefly explore these questions by considering the views of seven Kamakura-period Buddhist leaders representing four distinct streams of Buddhism: HOnen and Shinran of the Pure Land tradition; Myde and Jdkei of the vinaya restoration movement; Eisai and Dfigen of Zen; and Nichiren, founder of the Buddhism that bears his name. To aid in our discussion of their views, we will first give a brief outline of the history and development of mappo thought. Textual and Historical Background Buddhist tradition maintains that as the world moves farther and far­ ther away from the age of Shakyamuni Buddha, understanding of his teachings grows increasingly distorted and people’s capacity to practice and benefit from those teachings accordingly declines, until eventually Buddhism is lost. Sutras and treatises divide this process of degenera­ tion into three sequential periods beginning from the time of the Bud­ dha’s death: the age of the True Dharma (Skt. sad dharma, Jap. shobo) the age of the Counterfeit Dharma {saddharma-pratirQpaka, zGhG) and the age of the Final Dharma (saddharma-vipralopa, mappG). K’uei-chi (Tz’u-en, 632-682), founder of the Fa-hsiang school in China, discusses the three periods in terms of “teaching, practice and proof’ in his I-lin-chang (The Grove of Meanings). In the age of the True Dharma, he wrote, the Buddha’s teaching flourishes, people cor­ rectly put it into practice, and can thereby obtain its proof (i.e., the merit, or strictly speaking, enlightenment, deriving from practice). In the age of the Counterfeit Dharma, the Buddhist teaching and practice remain, but people can no longer gain any proof. By the age of the Final Dharma, only the teaching remains; one finds neither practice nor proof. This became a standard definition of the three periods in both China and Japan during the ensuing centuries. The “True Dharma,’’ “Counterfeit Dharma,’’ and “Final Dhar­ ma” originally arose as independent concepts, although all three reflected a desire to ensure the continued orthodoxy of the Buddhist teachings after Shakyamuni’s death. The term “True Dharma” (sad- dhamma in Pali) appears in the very earliest texts. Though technically redundant, as the Dharma preached by the Buddha is by definition 29 STONE “true,” the expression “True Dharma” may have been used by early Buddhists to distinguish Shakyamuni’s teachings from heterodox views.1 The term “Counterfeit Dharma” was employed to express forebodings about a time when Buddhism would decline and heterodox views would eclipse orthodox ones, just as counterfeit coinage drives out the genuine.2 The term “Final Dharma” referred to a time when Buddhism would die out altogether. The concept is thought to have derived from self-reflection in the Sangha or Buddhist Order on the danger to Buddhism’s survival posed by internecine quar­ rels and external threats. It would thus have served as a warning to monks to be diligent in their observance so that Buddhism might long endure. These three concepts were clearly organized into a sequential process in the Yueh-tsang-ching (Moon Matrix Sutra)3 and later incorporated with other texts into the Ta-chi-ching (The Great Collection of Sutras). Its warnings about the Final Dharma age may have stemmed in part from the invasion of India by the Ephthalite king Mihirakula (r. 518- 529?), whose anti-Buddhist atrocities must have made the extinction of the Dharma appear imminent.4 The Ta-chi-ching exerted a major influence on the development of mappO thought in both China and Japan. In addition to establishing the three-period sequence, it also divides the decline of Buddhism into five consecutive 500-year periods, commencing with the Buddha’s death. The fifth 500-year period, an age when “quarrels and disputes For the arguments presented in this section I am deeply indebted to Yamada Ryu- j6, “MappO shisO ni tsuite: DaijikkyO no seiritsu mondai,” in Indogaku BukkyOgaku Kenkyd 4, 2 (March 1956), pp. 54-63. 2 Agamas, T. 2.226b-c and 2.419b-c. 3 The Yueh-tsang-ching (full title: Ta-fang-teng yiieh-isang-ching) was translated in­ to Chinese by NarendrayaSas (517-589) in 566. Actually, the earliest extant text to set forth the three periods as a sequential process is a treatise by Hui-ssu (515-577) entitled Li-shih-yiian-wen, dated 558, which clearly specifies that the True Dharma age lasts for 500 years, the Counterfeit Dharma age for 1,000 years, and the Final Dharma age for 10,000 years (T.46.786c). Since Hui-ssu had dealings in the capital of the Northern Wei, where Narendrayasas had lived since 556, Yamada (p. 55) suggests that Naren- drayaias may have told Hui-ssu about the three-period thought before his translation of the Yueh-tsang-ching was completed. 4 Yamada, pp. 56-57. 30 SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE LAST AGE will arise among the adherents to my [Shakyamuni’s] teachings, and the Pure Dharma will be obscured and lost,”5 was later identified in Japan with the beginning of mappO. Much of the standard terminology associated with Japanese mappd thought, such as the “five defilements”6 said to prevail in the last age, also appears in the Ta-chi­ ching. In China, the anti-Buddhist persecutions conducted in 574-577 by Emperor Wu of the Northern Chou dynasty invested the mappO thought introduced by the Ta-chi-ching and other texts with a sense of immediate historical reality. For the first time, Buddhist schools began to emerge claiming a specific suitability to the Final Dharma age. These included the short-lived Sect of the Three Stages (San-chieh-chiao) founded by Hsin-hsing (540-594), and somewhat later, the Pure Land movements of Tao-ch’o (562-645) and Shan-tao (613-681), both of whom considered themselves to be living in the Final Dharma age. When does this age begin? To arrive at an answer, one needs two data: the length of each of the two preceding periods and the date of Shakyamuni Buddha’s death. Different texts gave rise to varying opin­ ions on the first point.7 The two that ultimately gained currency in Japan were: 1) the True Dharma age lasts for 500 years, and the Counterfeit Dharma age for 1,000 years; and 2) the True and Counterfeit Dharma ages each last 1,000 years. The Final Dharma age was generally said to last 10,000 years, or for an indefinite length of time. Some texts postulate a period of complete Dharma-extinction (Jap. hOmetsu) following the Final Dharma age, while in others, the Final Dharma age simply corresponds to the last age that the world passes through. Opinion also differed as to the date of Shakyamuni’s death. While re­ 5 Ta-chi-ching, T. 13.363b. 6 Five defilements, or gojoku, are the defilements of the kalpa (k0joku)\ of desires (bonnOjoku)-, of living beings (shujbjoku)', of views (kenjoku)\ and of life itself (myO- joku). ' The four most prevalent theories were: 1) True Dharma age 500 years, Counterfeit Dharma age 1,000 years; 2) True Dharma age 500 years, Counterfeit Dharma age 500 years; 3) True Dharma age 1,000 years. Counterfeit Dharma age 1,000 years; and 4) True Dharma age 1,000 years, Counterfeit Dharma age 500 years. For a list of citations from representative texts, see Yabuki Keiki, SangaikyO no kenkyQ (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1927), pp. 215-218. 31 STONE cent archeological studies tend to place it around the sixth or fifth cen­ tury B.C., pre-modern Asian scholars generally fixed it earlier. The two dates most commonly used come from the Chinese tradition. The Chou-i-shu (Record of Unusual Events of the Chou Dynasty) gives 949 B.C., while the Li-tai-san-pao-chi (History of the Three Treasures in Successive Reigns) gives 609 B.C.
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